Friday, June 07, 2013

Mitrovica on NSA, CSE, and LEU

Investigative reporter Andrew Mitrovica, who has often reported on Canadian intelligence topics (especially CSIS-related issues), has published a comment on NSA's newly confirmed domestic eavesdropping activities and the possibility that similar activities may be conducted in Canada ("Canada is part of the eavesdropping network," Ottawa Citizen, 7 June 2013).

Included in the article is a big plug for Lux Ex Umbra and yours truly! Thanks, Andrew! (Disclosure: Andrew and I have been in touch on these issues many times over the past 20 years or so.)

Just to make one point clear: When Mitrovica writes, "Robinson has long warned that the CSEC has long enjoyed the legal authority to do what the NSA is now being excoriated for doing", what he means -- and I meant -- is that CSE has the legal authority to assist CSIS, the RCMP, etc. in their domestic monitoring operations.

Whether that includes NSA-like activities such as data mining the call records of everybody in Canada is a very interesting question, and while I hope to write more about that in the near future, it is not a question that I would claim to have a definitive answer to, either in terms of the legality of such activities in Canada or the degree to which, if legal, they may already be underway.

For now I'm struggling just to keep up with the revelations (or in some cases confirmations) that seem to be growing by the hour south of the border.